Google and Satellite-Imaging Startup Skybox Go From Neighbors to Family

Photo: Matt McDonaldSkybox built its first two satellites inside its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, just a mile and a half from its new parent company, Google.

Some acquisitions are head-scratchers but not this one. Google’s announcement yesterday of its US $500 million acquisition of Skybox Imaging makes perfect sense:

1. Google uses lots of satellite images in Google Earth and its other online tools. Right now it buys the image data from a wide variety of sources, and some images are out of date. Skybox makes satellites that can take high-resolution images faster than traditional satellites; it can photograph any spot on the globe three times a day. It can also take short videos and track movement. Will we see YouTubeSat, perhaps?

Skybox—founded in 2009 by Stanford graduate students Dan Berkenstock, John Fenwick, Ching-Yu Hu, and Julian Mann—collected $93 million of venture investment. It launched its first satellite last November; its second satellite is due to go up on a Russian rocket this month but could be held up because of the Ukrainian situation.

An image of the Saga Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan, taken by Skybox's first satellite on 15 May 2014

A year ago Skybox cofounder Berkenstock told me, “We believe that in the long term satellite imagery and data derived from it could be an integral part of decision-making for billions of people around the world on a daily basis.”

Google, clearly, would like to see that happen. Google likes data and it likes analyzing data. Said NSR Senior Analyst Stephane Gounari, "Google's acquisition of SkyBox imaging is not only about cheaper data for Google Map. SkyBox's high-frequency revisit is what Google is looking for. By late 2015 to early 2016, and until other constellations become operational, Google will own a unique tool. And beyond Google map, Google, whose success is based on data-mining and information, will most likely integrate this imagery with other sources of data to offer new types of information products."

So if a company is gathering lots of data (like Google’s recent acquisition, Nest), it could very possibly be Google's next acquisition.